Adding Colors
by Desuchi
Summary: Everything was dull and gray. My motivation, gone. My life goal, destroyed. Love is worthless, isn't it? Maybe it's about time I try to figure out its worth. After all, what would be a madman's definition of love? You came into my life in a storm of whirling light and chaos. And you brought with you...color. But life never lets us keep what we have. You left me in the end. PTxAT


The lights were permanently turned off inside the cold, dusty room. Sunlight compensated by streaming in from large glass panes, dappling a white tiled floor with spots of shimmering gold and yellow. In front of the window was a wooden table piled high with various tomes. Several of them were open, displaying their yellowed pages filled with handwritten ink-smeared notes. Discarded feather quills were strewn about all over the place. On a table next to the first, steam rose from the surface of a large metallic box as eerie glowing runes circled it in a manner similar to an alchemist's magic. Heat radiated off of it in the form of a dull red light.

"The Code…" A voice murmured with an edge of hysteria undertone and shallow breathing. The phrase was nothing but a mere puff of air that scattered a flurry of dust particles as silence swept over the room once more.

A figure clad in dark purple and black stood with his palms flat against the surface of the wooden table. Small pieces of machinery crackled with unnatural violet electricity as they floated around his shoulders. Gleaming mismatched eyes stared down at the smoking angular machine sitting innocently in front of him as one levitating mechanical device- a dynamo, as it was called- strayed away from the others and tapped cautiously against the glowing red surface of the metallic cube. The corners of his lips slowly turned up into an insane grin.

_Click. _

The figure shut his eyes and braced himself.

Nothing happened. The atmosphere was still thick with tension. A pink tongue came out to slowly lick his bottom lip as his mind spun with various other methods to approach the problem at hand. Sweat trickled down a pale brow as slim fingers toyed with a wrench in his hand. His canine tooth bit down on soft pastel lips in anxiety. Slowly, the figure reached out and traced the edge of the cube with a finger, marveling at how razor sharp it was before feeling a pinprick.

A pearly drop of ruby liquid poked its way out from the minute cut in his flesh, eliciting a small 'tch' of pain as the male pulled his hand away from the object. Electricity crackled from his dynamos as a result of the mental disruption and temporarily illuminated an aristocratic face with purple light.

"Why won't you work, you piece of shit?! Show me the code already!" Fingers dug their way into silver locks in frustration. Scowling in irritation, the male slid his hand along a glowing screen that appeared over a floating disk near his arm.

Electronic charts, statistics, and percentages drew themselves onto the holographic screen. Unfortunately, none of the information was helpful, much to the increasing annoyance of its user. The silver head scowled in annoyance and blasted the useless disk away from him with a beam of purple electricity. The smoldering object blew a hole in the wall as it flew out of the building, never to be seen or be used ever again.

In a blind fit of rage, the figure swept everything off the table and scattered tomes everywhere. Stray papers fluttered downward and carpeted the cold tiled floor around his black boots. With a final hiss of rage, he slammed his sparking dynamo into the cube sitting in front of him. Time seemed to slow down as an ugly dent formed on its surface and the shock of what he had just done settled into his expression.

"…"

His only clue to retrieving the secrets of the ancient empire of Altera was now damaged beyond repair. As if things couldn't get any worse, his throat went dry as the cube glowed brighter in response to his horrible fuck up.

He knew what that meant. It would explode.

"Fucking son of a-! Stupid ass piece of shit- …god fucking-!" A string of other profanities followed the realization, along with hissing and fumbling. Pale fingers rapidly clutched at the glowing box as heat rolled off its surface in waves in an attempt to save whatever clue he had of the Nasod code before it self-destructed. Sweat gathered in the palms of his hands as the silver haired male widened his eyes.

A regretful choke sounded from his throat as he threw the glowing box away from him at the last second and shielded his face from the immediate explosion. The recoil sent him crashing into the floor with his head tucked into his arms. Dynamos swirled around in front of his body and provided additional protection against the blast as heat waves blew past his huddled form with the speed of a hurricane. By the time the smoke cleared, the lab was in ruins. His tables were reduced to barely standing splinters of wood and his handwritten books were burnt to ashes as dark as the jacket he wore.

He slowly picked himself off of the floor and brushed debris off his leather jacket. The figure spun in a 360 as he accessed the damage even further, his artificially heterochromatic eyes narrowing in displeasure at what he saw.

"Mother of unholy El…"

The window had been smashed to bits in the explosion and there was now a smoking crater in the corner near the door. He silently summoned his dynamos with a casual flick of his wrist and strolled over to the crater with the assumption that the Nasod code box had been flung there prior to its destruction. The mechanical weapons sparked with static as they followed the silver haired teen to the location of the cube's ruins.

To his immense disappointment, there was nothing left of the box. Not even a piece of scrap metal. Almost everything had been vaporized by the explosion. A scowl drew itself upon his face as the male kicked at the crumbling stone around his boots in barely contained anger.

However, as he turned over a stray piece of debris with the toe of his boot, a little disk, only slightly larger than his pinky finger, was revealed in the ashes. He picked it up with an eyebrow raised in mild curiosity.

* * *

_Everything was dull and gray. _

_My motivation, gone._

_My life goal, destroyed._

* * *

A lone figure sat in the back of an empty classroom. He was perched on top of an empty bookshelf, watching the setting sun shine its amber rays onto the dirty surface of worn out student desks. A dusty chalkboard was at the front of the classroom with poorly erased numbers scrawled on its surface with chalk that had crumbled to bits years ago. Even from here, he was able to recognize the trigonometric formula without so much as a second glance.

His artificial eye flickered with an ethereal glow as his other eye remained dull and emotionless. His face was void of any expression as he numbly sat on that bookshelf absentmindedly fiddling with a dynamo. His jacket had been discarded and was messily folded in a pile in his lap. A sigh escaped his lips.

He had spent countless days and nights scouring the land through handmade satellites for a hint of ancient energy. He had spilt the blood of numerous people trying fight his way into government protected buildings. He had hacked into an infinite amount of databases trying to uncode the ancient Nasodian formula that would assist in his plan of creating sentient mechanical beings. He had risked his life digging into the basement crevices of a crumbling temple in Hamel to retrieve the last Nasodian cube known to mankind and was nearly buried alive as a result.

All for what?

The one thing that he had dedicated his life to finding was destroyed by his own hands in a burst of uncontainable rage. The cavity in his chest throbbed with hollow pain at the thought.

His heart. Or rather, where it was supposed to be.

Hearts held happiness and love, didn't they?

That only applied to normal people, he mused to himself. Normal people who lived their lives doing the same thing over and over until they wasted away into the dirt from where they came from.

For him, happiness was found in ripping apart the rusty bodies of once-living Nasods. For him, happiness was found in discovering the type of life that flowed between wires instead of pulsating through veins. For him, happiness was successfully being able to piece together an auto functioning sextuplet of mechanical devices that reacted solely through his mental output through the use of sensors and countless calculations.

As for love, it was something that he didn't feel too bothered about being left out of. It was hard to miss something that he never had. Vague memories had revealed to him that his parents loved Nasods more than they loved their own child. Love was what got his family killed. It wasn't love that saved him and pushed him into a dimensional rift when the three of them were chased down by flames and swords. It wasn't love that locked him up in a timeless library of infinite knowledge. It wasn't love that got him out of there either.

So he only assumed what could be assumed. Love was worthless.

The silver haired male stayed there brooding over his thoughts as the sun gradually disappeared over the horizon. The abandoned school building was enveloped in a silky blanket of midnight blue as night took over day. Stars twinkled behind the smog of city pollution.

Blinking drowsily, the male jumped down from his spot on the bookshelf and walked towards a certain desk lying in the corner of the classroom. It was turned over onto its side in a pile of dust that had accumulated over the centuries. A single name was scrawled into a yellowish paper that was hanging off of its edge by a small piece of tape.

_Add_.

The teen stared at the nametag for several minutes with an unreadable expression on his face. His face remained impassive as the sight of the name- _his name_- brought back both good and bad memories. He ripped the tag off the desk held it delicately in his hand. It was flimsy and worn out, as expected from a fragile piece of paper that had somehow managed to survive all these years. The ink was faded but the letters that made up his name were still readable.

Add silently placed the paper within the folds of his black leather pants with his eyes downcast. Without any further thoughts, he put on his jacket and curled up into a ball next to the dusty desk that had once been his own.

As sleep embraced the curled up figure of the silver haired teen in the abandoned classroom, he quietly took note of a single thing as he lazily ran a finger down the smooth cold surface of a dynamo.

The silver disk from the ruined lab lay in the pocket right over his heart.

* * *

_Love is worthless…isn't it? _

_But maybe it's about time that I try to figure out its worth._

_After all…what is a madman's definition of love?_

* * *

Bright spots sparked behind his closed lids like fireworks as a strong breeze ruffled his unruly silver hair. A hiss of irritation sounded from the sleeping teen's throat in response to the distraction. Add turned away from the annoyance and tucked his head into his arms, taking comfort in the darkness that lulled him slowly back into the glorious bliss known as sleep.

Unfortunately, that comfort didn't last for long as another gust of wind blew directly into his face. An eyebrow twitched. Something tickled at the back of his mind as a certain realization slowly made it past through the foggy mist clouding his mind. If he was facing away from the disturbance with his head tucked into his arms…how would the wind still be blowing into his face?

The teen jolted his head upwards. All traces of his sleepiness disappeared as brilliant white light hit him straight in the face. Add recoiled at the sudden brightness and covered his eyes with his arm in shock. He quickly ducked behind his old desk away from the ridiculously bright light as black spots dotted his vision.

"What the fuck…?" He rasped, his voice still rusty from sleep. Mismatched eyes hastily glanced around to make sure that his dynamos were within reach. They were already sparking with violet electricity and floating around his shoulders in battle formation, much to his relief. Add shielded his eyes from the light and analyzed his surroundings.

Wind swirled violently around his body as if a tornado had wrapped itself around him. Dust was drawn in from the grimy corners of the classroom and was swept upwards into an unnatural circular formation barely ten feet away from where Add was bracing himself behind the old desk. He stared in astonishment as electricity crackled around the circular cloud and formed an opening in the center. Banded waves of unseen energy drew themselves onto the blank space within it, warping the image of the classroom behind the semi-transparent cloud into a myriad of colors.

_An optical illusion within an electrically- charged circular dust cloud?_ Add squinted at the unusual event that was taking place right before his eyes. His vision was still recovering from getting a beam of unfiltered light fired straight into his eye sockets. _Maybe it can occur in a magnetically distorted field in an arid location, but why the fuck is it happening in an abandoned school?_

The unusual banding within the circular gap started to fizzle and pop. Staticky sounds were heard as sparks showered down onto the tiled floor of the classroom. Add pulled his head away from the edge of the desk and put on his hood as a protection against flying debris. He shut his eyes as the roaring wind started to pick up. The teen gritted his teeth against the biting wind as the noise surrounded him on all sides. He managed to open his eyes and glance out a window for barely a fraction of a second before the wind forced him to close them again.

All this chaos was only taking place in within the classroom. The trees were swaying outside in a gentle breeze in stark contrast to the wild storm that tore at his clothes and threatened to blow his skin off his body. So why was he being buffeted by some unseen force within the limited confinements of a classroom? Even the door was perfectly fine from its location four feet away. It showed no sign of being ripped off its hinges anytime soon.

Add shakily made his way to the small desk that was his only defense against the abnormal storm. Somehow, his dynamos had been ripped away from him and were now scattered across the floor like fallen dominos. His pale clammy fingers clutched at the edges of his hood.

_Is this the work of a ghost?_ _No…It can't be. T-That's impossible! Ghosts a-aren't real!_

Something akin to fear pounded in his chest at the thought, although that feeling was quickly shoved away. The teen struggled to keep himself calm as his heart plummeted into his stomach. Sweat trailed down his face.

_What if it really is a ghost?_

His breathing sped up as his eyes dilated in panic under his closed eyelids, a lump forming in his throat. He started to quiver in terror. Add shuffled his feet together and clamped his hands over his ears instead of his hood. The teen sat frozen like ice as the fierce wind slapped at his huddled form.

"…" Add slumped in his spot as seconds passed like hours.

The wind eventually died down. The roaring stopped. Dust quietly rained downwards and formed miniature piles on the dirty floor as silence swept over the room. The stillness was only broken by the shallow breathing of a single person hiding in the corner of the classroom.

* * *

_You came into my life._

_In a storm of whirling light and chaos._

_And you brought with you…color._

* * *

Add shakily took in a breath once he noticed that the chaos had stopped. He opened his eyes slowly and pulled his hood down. Wiping his sweaty hands on his leather pants, he swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. With a shaky finger, he tried to summon his dynamos to his side. Nothing happened.

He heard a weak fizzling coming from his fallen dynamos and stood up from behind the worn out desk. Upon picking one up, he realized that the mechanical devices that he had so painstakingly crafted were scratched all over. Chips of metal had been chunked off by the debris that had been flying around at ungodly speeds. Erosion at its finest, he thought with mild irritation.

Unfortunately, his weapons had suffered more than just aesthetic damage. The teen picked up another dynamo from the floor and noticed that its internal wires had been cut up into several pieces. Looking back at the first one in his hands, he realized that the wires were severed on it as well.

Pink eyes narrowed in suspicion. Judging from the way the cuts were made, the wires hadn't been torn by anything that was flying around during the electric dust storm. It was too much of a clean incision- the only way that it could have been made was if someone had cut the wires with a penknife.

But he was the only person in the room.

Or was he?

The realization hit him like a brick as he quickly spun on his heel and barely managed to block a wall of white charging at him. His artificial eye glowed in preparation for battle as he was knocked to the floor and pinned down by something heavy. Add growled and kicked his leg up in an attempt to dislodge the other person, unable to see clearly due to his hair flying into his eyes at his forceful movement.

An unfamiliar "tch" sound was heard as a response to his defensive move. The voice was identified to be that of a young male's. Add hissed.

"Get the hell off of me." He spat in fury at the person pinning him down. The teen quickly snapped his head to the right to narrowly avoid a small device that came crashing down at his face. Probably a taser. "I'll fucking blow your faggot body into bloody pieces."

"Tempting, but I'd rather inspect your internal organs instead." The other person jeered in a voice that was slightly higher than his own. "Now sit still, little boy. You have something that belongs to me."

"Hell as if I do!" Add managed to kick the other person off of himself and sat up snarling. He swiped his messy hair out of his eyes and took a better look at his opponent.

Another male with features almost identical to his own was crouched on the ground, his figure almost entirely enveloped by an oversized white sweater. He was clad in matching white skinny jeans and had most of his silver hair held back by a zigzagging brown headband. A smirk played on the other's lips as if he was taunting him. Add curled his lips in disgust, his pink eyes narrowed with the intent to kill.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"It doesn't matter when you'll be dead within the next ten minutes." His opponent haughtily replied and snapped his fingers. Six symmetrical pieces of metal floated up to the other's shoulders.

_Dynamos. _Add let out a strangled gasp of recognition and took a step back. Those were his weapons…how was the other person controlling them? His mouth went dry as he strained to keep himself focused.

"Now where are you hiding my data files?"

The question took a while to sink in through the confusion clouding his mind. His eyes remained focused on the dynamos.

"I…" He trailed off. The other male gazed at him coldly, dynamos sparking angrily behind him. Add clenched his fists at the hostility emanating from the other person and steeled himself.

"I don't have them." He leered, despite the bad situation that he was in. Here he was, beat-up and unarmed, against some unfamiliar stranger who shared the same physical features as him and used weapons almost identical to his own. But hell would freeze over first before he tucked his tail between his legs and gave the other person what he wanted without putting up a fight.

If only he could lure his opponent into a physical fight…

After all, fist fights were always his forte.

Those strange Dynamos had to go though, otherwise it would be suicide for him. The cogs in his mind started to work as Add sized up his opponent.

"Don't you dare fucking lie to me, brat." The smirk dropped from the other's lips as his opponent's tone grew icy. Add narrowed his eyes and readied himself in a defensive stance. "Tell me where you're keeping the disk and I'll consider letting you go with your limbs intact."

_Oh, he means the disk. _Add realized. Suddenly, the tiny silver disk resting in the pocket over his heart seemed to be ten times heavier. He unconsciously glanced down at his breast pocket and then quickly looked up again to maintain eye contact with his opponent. To his well-hidden horror, he found an identical pair of eyes staring straight into his own as a thin smile traced itself along the other male's lips.

_Shit. _His momentary slip-up had been caught.

"You know where it is, don't you?" The other's cold tone turned into a disturbingly soft whisper as the stranger slowly closed the distance between the two. "I think I know where it is too."

"…" Add stepped backwards edgily, growing increasingly more uncomfortable as his back hit a wall. The other person was now barely three feet away from him. "Stay away from me." He spat hatefully, although his voice came out as a feeble whisper in the silent classroom. He flinched as a Dynamo pinned a part of his hood to the wall, against a child's crayon drawing of the sky.

His opponent casually stepped closer and sneered down at where he was, slumped against a wall with a Dynamo holding him in place. "So tell me, where are you hiding the disk?" Add glared murderously at the other male with his artificial eye glowing dangerously. A low chuckle sounded from his opponent.

"I certainly don't think you're hiding my disk over here, are you?"

Add felt his breast pocket being tapped lightly and stayed silent. Narrowing his eyes and glaring straight into the black pupils of the other teen, a smug grin stretched across his own mouth. "You must mean this thing, then." He dug out the tiny disk from his pocket and held it up, watching the other's features twist into an ugly scowl.

"You had it all along, you little-"

_Slam._

Add punched the other across the face as hard as he could, reveling in the satisfying crunching noise that followed. His opponent went skidding across the floor and left a small trail of blood. "So what if I did?" He smirked and ripped his tattered leather jacket free of the Dynamo. He watched the white-clothed male shakily stand back up with blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. "What are you gunna do about it, shitface?"

"_Panzer Buster._"

A beam of blinding purple light slammed into Add's chest, sending him flying backwards into the wall. "Gaaaack-!" He choked out a scream as the wall cracked and shattered behind him. The laser slammed him through the wall and into the next classroom, scattering desks and chairs all over the place as he was brutally thrown onto the ground.

Breathing harshly, the silver-haired teen wearily sat up from the debris-ridden floor and slumped against a nearby chair. The dust cleared up and revealed an ugly opening in the wall across the classroom. Within the break, rusty metal pipes were bent at odd angles and stone crumbled downwards in little chunks.

He had been sent straight through metal and solid rock.

It was a miracle that his spine was still intact.

Add experimentally flexed his shoulders and winced at the pain. Apparently, they had taken the brunt of the damage when he crashed through the wall. _All this for a tiny disk that serves no purpose to me. _He tch'd. _But it must be something valuable if that other guy would kill me to get his hands on it._

He unclenched his fist and glanced down at the innocent, pure-white disk in his gloved palm. With a disdainful roll of his eyes, he closed his fist again as he heard movement from the other side of the room.

"Are you going to give me what belongs to me now, or do I need to fire another laser at you?" Chunks of rock fell to the ground as the stranger hopped through the smoking opening in the wall. With sickeningly sweet pleasure, Add noticed that his opponent had an ugly purple bruise decorating a large portion of his left jaw and was walking with a slight limp.

Casually raising an eyebrow despite the worn down state he was in, Add tossed the disk at his opponent with a smirk. "Take it. It's broken."

"W-What?" The other person fumbled to the catch the disk and let out a gasp as the small object cracked into three pieces in his hands. "How did it-"

"Bet you regret firing that laser now, huh pretty boy?" Add snickered and stared at his enemy, feeling the burn in his artificial left eye grow hotter as the urge to kill struck him blind. He could literally see the pink glow affecting the vision in his normal eye now. The dark-clothed teen stood up from the ground. "That fucking hurt like hell. Such a shame that you destroyed what you wanted so badly, hm?"

The irony was ignored as Add charged at his opponent, throwing a powerful kick into the other teen's stomach. "_Quake Buster._"

The white-clothed male reeled back from the explosive blow and crashed into a set of chairs. Add pursued the fallen male, easily blocking a punch to the face as the dust cleared. He let a crazed grin morph his facial features, enjoying the now panicked look on the other's face. _He's weak. And he knows it._

"Can't even hold your own against a real fight, can you?" He sneered, delivering a well-placed roundhouse kick into the other person's gut. His opponent fell to the floor like a rag doll, not even looking into his eyes as Add grabbed him by the shirt and punched him in the face.

_He isn't even fighting back, how boring._

After several rounds of beating up his unmoving enemy, Add let the other male go with a bored sigh. The stranger dropped to the ground and slumped over. His pink eyes were dull and his face was void of any expression as blood welled up from the corners of his mouth. Bruises littered his neck and jaw.

"This is so pathetic that the books in the goddamn library had more value than you right now. Go back to where you came from, whoever you are." Add snorted and tucked his hands into his pockets. Turning on his heel, he was about to walk away when a quiet voice broke the silence.

"I can't."

"Eh?"

"I can't go back."

Add haughtily flipped his bangs out of his eyes. "That isn't my problem now, is it? Look up at me when I talk to you." Staring into a face that mirrored his own, Add glared daggers down at his beaten opponent. "After trying to kill me over a worthless little disk, you expect me to give a shit about where you're supposed to go after I beat you to a pulp."

The other male's eyes started to glow an unsettling bright pink, very much like his own eyes moments before. "Listen up, you unpleasant child. You and I both know that I could have easily killed you if not for the fact that my treasured possession cracked into three pieces." Add took a step back as the other's eyes grew brighter and brighter. "Do keep in mind that it was merely because of the disk that I was able to cross dimensions to see what a parallel universe was like."

_A parallel universe? _Add blanched. His eyes widened as he shakily pointed to the beaten teen in front of him. "That means…you must be…"

"That's right, you little shit. You just beat the crap out of yourself from a different dimension." His newly-established parallel regarded the Psychic Tracer with loathing. "And here I expected my other self to be intelligent and reasonable. Instead, I get a violent protozoan."

_Slam._

Add punched his parallel self across the face and glowered. "Repair the disk and get the fuck out of here then, Your Royal Fucking Highness."

"E-Easier said than done." His other self exhaled harshly and clutched his throbbing jaw in pain, his eyes dimming to a slow pulsing. "Holy shit, you punch hard."

"You're just weak." Add snorted in contempt and brushed off his hands. "And rude. You think I would actually help if all you did was insult me?"

The other chose to ignore the question and got up to dust himself off. His white clothes, for some reason, were still perfectly clean despite being rolled all over the ground. "We have a week before Glave notices my disappearance from my own dimension. Once he finds out, I'll be killed as punishment. In addition to that, all of my other selves will be killed as well."

"So I'm being dragged down with you if you don't repair the disk within a week." Add deadpanned, feeling his fingers twitch with the urge to sock his parallel self in the face again.

"Change that 'you' to a 'we', and maybe Glave's hell spun anger can be avoided." Parallel-world Add brushed himself off and summoned his Dynamos with a flick of his fingers. As beaten down as he was, there was no doubt that he was speaking the truth. If not for the different hairstyles and attire, the two would easily have been twins.

"So are you coming or not, brat?"

Add was quiet for a moment and took in all the information. He closed his eyes for a few moments. Finally, he managed to utter one short phrase.

"My name is _Add_, not _brat_."

"Nice to meet you too, brat."

* * *

_To a person who had given up on everything,_

_You showed me, of all people…_

_Color._

* * *

"What the living fuck is this?!" The Psychic Tracer shrieked and quickly stamped out a flame near his boots. After getting over his initial shock, Add stumbled into the smoking lab and gazed around wildly at the crimson flames that were licking at the walls. The teen summoned his Dynamos to his side (after spending a full five hours working his ass off trying to fix them, they were finally ready to be used again) and cleared a path through the black haze fogging up the room.

Of course, after being freshly repaired and ready for combat use, the first thing he uses his Dynamos for is to blow away smoke. The thought alone made the silver-haired teen grimace as he made his way cautiously across the fiery room. "Oi, you pompous prick, are you here?" _Or dead?_ The second part remained unspoken.

_Not like I care. It isn't my problem if he dies from asphyxiation._

"I'm here and perfectly fine, thank you very much." A coughing noise followed and contradicted the statement. Add glanced over to the far left corner of the lab and deadpanned at the sight that greeted his eyes.

His parallel self was huddled near the window and was busily wiping grime away from his face. Although his clothes were as pristine as ever, his skin and gloves were covered in soot. However, the expression on his face screamed satisfaction. In fact, the arrogant asshole resembled a cat that just swallowed the mouse.

"My lab is on fire." Add snarled. His eyes blazed in anger as his other self looked up at him with mild interest.

"I appreciate you stating the obvious. Yes, your lab is in fact, on fire." Parallel Add said placidly, not looking the least bit bothered by the fact that the two of them were sitting in a burning room.

"You set my lab on fire, didn't you?" Fire crackled in the background as the Psychic Tracer impatiently waited for a response. He toyed with the thought of beating the shit out of himself again (the idea seemed to get weirder and weirder as he continued to ponder it) but decided that he would much rather figure out why the fuck his parallel self set fire to his lab.

"I can assure you that it was necessary for the bigger cause." The other gestured for Add to get closer. Narrowing his eyes warily, he let himself be dragged down into a sitting position beside the other. "Take a look at this, brat."

Suppressing the urge to punch the faggot across the face at the irritating nickname, Add stared into the palm of the other's gloved hand. There was nothing there. "I don't see anythi-"

"Move your head, you're blocking the light from the window."

Add tensed up as gentle but firm fingers tilted his head away at a slight angle. As he stared intently into the other's palm, he could make out a shimmering outline of a small circular shape. Moments passed by in silence as the two watched the outline get stronger and more defined.

"It's just a red circle." The Psychic Tracer muttered. A snort was heard from his dimensional counterpart.

"It's progress. The disk is on its way to being fully repaired." He was cut off by crashing sound coming from the far side of the room. The door had caved in. "…I believe it's time for us to get out of here before we die from inhaling too much smoke."

Add simply turned around and summoned his dynamos to his side. "_Particle Accelerator!_" Debris went flying everywhere as a powerful energy beam destroyed the wall in front of them. Smoke poured out of the newly-made opening like a flood as the two teens stumbled outside into the fresh air.

"We could've broken out through the window, you know." His parallel self drawled. Add twitched and punched the other in the arm.

"Shut up."

His ears tinged red, just like the shimmering outline in the other's hand.

* * *

Thunder crashed as dark clouds loomed overhead, swirling the gray sky into a frothing soup of electrical energy. Lightning flashed as the rain poured down in floods, temporarily illuminating two pale faces on the mountainside. The two figures huddled together on a ledge, shielding their faces in the soggy underbrush. A thin fork of yellow twisted its way into the clouds and disappeared once again, followed by another clap of thunder moments later.

"Arc…why are we here?" Add said weakly, shutting his eyes tightly as the thunder shook the heavens. He could feel the rumblings within the mountain with every clash. Raindrops slipped down his collarbones and disappeared into the already soaked neckline of his shirt. His silver hair clung to the sides of his face as he glanced over at his counterpart.

Arc, as he was now called, grit his teeth as he stared into the storming sky. "I told you before that we need to get the essence, imbecile." Pinkish eyes glanced over at the Psychic Tracer's battered form and took note of the terror lining his features. "Don't tell me you're afraid of thunderstorms."

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I'm n-"

_CRASH! KKKKACHHHHKKK!_

Add paled considerably and hastily scooted backwards into the ledge, almost burying himself in the underbrush. Brilliant white light flashed in the sky as the Arc Tracer stared flatly at the other boy, who was currently curled up into a ball against a sodden Hawthorne bush.

"You were saying?"

"Shut up or I'll kill you." A murderous gleam appeared in the teen's eyes as Add peeked out from under his hands. Arc stared quietly at him for a few moments. Reaching over to the Psychic Tracer, he awkwardly patted the other's soaked silver hair.

"Stay here then. I'll go collect the Light Essence myself."

"Huh? Wait, you fucking asshole, where do you think you're going-"

Arc disappeared into the storm, leaving the teen speaking to the air. Add looked around wildly, searching for any sign of his partner. Raindrops plopped into his eyes, effectively blinding him from seeing beyond his own nose. He hissed in annoyance. How dare that jerk leave him alone in the fucking rain-

He caught himself mid-thought and furrowed his brows in confusion. Why should he care if the other left temporarily to do his own thing?

He should be relieved that he finally had his own personal space to himself for the first time in three days. He despised the smug bastard, even if that bastard was technically himself.

But… that tugging feeling in his gut seemed to contradict his thoughts. He frowned in thought and tucked himself deeper into his arms as the sky flashed. Minutes ticked by like hours before an infuriatingly happy voice rang in the air, followed by a clap of roaring thunder.

"I'm ba~ack!" Arc strolled back in looking like he had just won the lottery. "Did you miss me, scaredy-cat?" He simpered with a taunting grin. Lightning flashed behind him.

Add punched the other in the gut, his brow twitching in irritation. "You should've been gone longer than that, I was trying to sort out my thoughts."

Arc held up his hand and motioned for the Psychic Tracer towards his palm. Add grudgingly shuffled over to where the other was standing and looked into his hand. The circle had become a lot more solid and was now pulsing softly with a yellow light.

"Mou…how many more painful trips do we need to make in order to finish the disk?" Add glanced up and saw the disc's light gleaming in Arc's downcast eyes.

"Just a few more, brat. Let's just wait out this storm before we set off again." Somehow, the easygoing tone that the Arc Tracer used didn't match up with his shadowed expression. Add mutely stared at the other as the rumbling storm continued to brew overhead.

The disk in his palm continued to glow a soft pulsing yellow.

* * *

"Watch out, that's poisonous."

"Stay away from that, it'll try to eat you if you're too close."

"If you slip there, you'll end up in a clump of toxic toadstools."

Add couldn't take it anymore. He rounded on the impassive teen walking beside him and grabbed the other by the shirt. "Just how many fucking things are trying to kill us here?!"

Arc sucked in his cheeks and ticked off a mental list of lethal plants on his fingers before giving up. "Too many to count on ten fingers. I'll need four, maybe five, extra hands to count all of them."

"Why the hell are we trekking through this place again? It's like an evil garden." The silver-haired teen growled and kicked at a gnarled root. He promptly cursed in surprise and retreated backwards as the root shook itself and disappeared into the underbrush.

"Essence. I told you that several times already." Mr. Dimensional Prick deadpanned. "We need to collect a Nature Essence here, and we're going to find it in the heart of this deadly forest." The Arc Tracer cut away several low hanging vines with a highly-concentrated laser and motioned to something at the far end of the clearing.

The two Adds stepped into a bright green meadow full of lush blooms and colorful butterflies. Sunlight streamed down in rays of golden light, highlighting the golden brown bark of the trees surrounding the clearing. As Add followed his accomplice through the long grasses, he felt the warmth of the sun seeping into his exhausted body. A drowsy haze clouded his mind. He strained to keep his eyes focused on the neat mop of silver hair in front of him as his tense body relaxed.

Before he knew it, he was lying face down in the silky grass, not even bothering to fight it when his eyelids started to close. The warm and moist earth seemed to lull him into a deep sleep, a sleep that he needed since he started travelling across the continent with his parallel self. Maybe a quick nap would give him some energy…

_Slap!_

"Add. Wake up now." The Psychic Tracer felt his body being shaken forcibly. He let out a childish whine and attempted to halfheartedly punch the offender. "You fucking imbecile, this is exactly why I should've kept a better eye on you. Wake up _now_."

"Brat, if you don't wake up now, you'll be swallowed up by the earth. The forest is trying to consume you, you fucking idiot!"

"I'm not fucking around! If you want to live, you better wake up now, and _fast_."

_Huh…?_

The Psychic Tracer blearily opened his eyes and saw the panicked face of Arc looking down at him. Sweat trickled from the other's brow and plopped down onto his cheek. _Ew. _Add blinked his eyes slowly.

"Finally, you're awake!" Arc gasped. "This is the heart of the forest, the most dangerous spot. You played right into its trap like a bloody idiot." Add gazed up at the other teen in confusion as he was rushed into sitting up. The ground seemed to suck at his body as he sat up, similar to how slime would stick to an object if someone tried to pluck it loose.

"This part of Shadow Forest seduces you with warmth and relaxation, and would liquefy your body with hidden acid under the soil as you slumber for eternity." Arc hissed while glancing around furtively. "I already retrieved the Nature essence, we need to get out of here before the forest realizes that you're awake."

"Before the forest…what?" The silver-haired teen drowsily murmured. He was about to sink back into sleep until a harsh slap to the face knocked the drowsiness out of him. His eyes flew open. The Psychic Tracer ripped himself free of the dirt clinging onto him and stood up, his fists sparking with electricity.

He had been just played like a fool…by a fucking forest. His eyes glowed in anger as he regarded the trees around him with spite. It was time to kill some trees.

"You're standing in poison ivy, by the way." Arc said, toying with the disk in his hand. It was now making clicking noises as it alternated between red, yellow, and green lights. He didn't seem to be bothered at all by the sight of his dimensional counterpart getting ready to go on a tree-killing spree. "I'd love to help you destroy the forest and all, but we need to get going before it gets dark. Getting lost in Shadow Forest after sunset guarantees a night plagued with terror."

"Why did you bring me here anyways?" Add snarled, staring straight into the other teen's eyes. He kicked his way out of the ivy and confronted the other male. "This entire time, all I've been doing is following you around and not doing anything. Hell, I bet that you could've done all this on your own without having to drag me around everywhere."

"That's true." Arc tilted his head and brought a hand to his chin in thought, completely unaffected by the other's rage. "But it's always more fun to do something together than doing something alone."

Add huffed and turned on his heel, wanting to get out of the forest. Fucking arrogant asshole…he wanted nothing more than to hit him across the face and leave him behind forever.

Arc's next words made him freeze on the spot.

"If we truly are the same person inside, then you would understand how much we despised living a lonely life."

* * *

"For the Water essence, you might need to leave me alone for a while."

"Excuse me?" Add looked down from his perch on a boulder. He set aside the dynamo that he was fixing and stared down at the sitting form of Arc, who was leaning against the rock that he was sitting on. The two teens were bathed in orange light from the rising sun as the Psychic Tracer waited for a response from his counterpart.

"Water essence can only be retrieved from…" Arc's voice grew softer. "…from deep sorrow or regret."

Add was quiet for a moment and jumped down from his spot. He seated himself next to the other person and sighed. "How exactly do you plan to do that then?"

"That's why I said to give me some time. I will figure it out." Arc flatly stated. Add noticed that the other teen refused to make eye contact. "Legend says that the first Water El was created from the tears of a goddess who was separated from her true love."

"You and I both know that we have nothing to be sad for." Add bluntly stated. He flicked his silver tresses out of his eyes and glanced at his other self, who pursed his lips. "Much less someone that we love."

"You know that isn't true. We have plenty of things to be sad for, it's just that we don't want to cry over it." Arc leaned back with a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile forming on his face. "And the one person we truly love is our self, as selfish as that is."

"How brutally honest." The Psychic Tracer muttered. He gazed into the distance where the orangey sky met the black line of the horizon. "It's because of the library, isn't it? How our fates were sealed the moment insanity settled into our minds at the tender age of ten. We missed out on a normal life."

Arc murmured in agreement. "Our lives were snatched by the foreign hand of fate." He tilted his head to face the buttery-yellow visage of the rising sun. "We never got to know the feeling of happiness. Or jealousy. Or anything, in that case."

"It really isn't fair…is it?"

"No…it isn't."

The disk in Arc's hand flashed blue, but went unnoticed as the two teens continued to stare at the sunrise with faces void of emotion.

* * *

Flames crackled in the background as Add quietly stared at the sleeping form of his counterpart, listening to the crickets chirping in the background. An owl hooted in the distance, unseen within the darkness under the midnight blue sky. A crescent moon glittered silver among a dazzling mass of silver stars.

Add folded his gloved hands on his lap and continued to analyze his other self by the light of the campfire. His silver tresses fluttered into his eyes as a nighttime breeze ruffled his hair. As he watched, a small breeze rustled the grasses near Arc's sleeping spot. As much of an arrogant prick he was when awake, his sleeping form made him look peaceful and even… happy.

_I wonder if I look like that when I'm asleep as well._

The orange half-light from the fire caused flickering shadows to dance across his counterpart's face, highlighting his aristocratic cheekbones and slender nose. His lids were folded gently and his lips occasionally formed a small 'o' shape as he breathed. He was curled up like a cat on the ground with his oversized sweater covering his entire body like a giant white blanket.

The Psychic Tracer pursed his lips and glanced up at the dark sky. His eyes furrowed in thought. _This would be the perfect time to run away. This is the first time that he legitimately went to sleep in front of me, throwing down all of his defenses. I can probably even kill him and get away with it right now._

That's right. For the first couple of nights, Arc had refused to let the other out of his sight. He had stayed awake and "kept watch" in order to prevent the Psychic Tracer from running off.

But right now…

_I guess this adventure was fun and all, but I originally wanted to get away from it, didn't I? This is the perfect opportunity but… why can't I just take it like I usually would? _

Add grit his teeth and glared holes into the innocent sleeping form of Arc as an unexpected realization came to mind. The other had done something to him, something that was irreversible. As much as he hated to admit it, there was no way around it:

He had turned soft.

Steeling his will, the Psychic Tracer got up and dusted off his black pants. His purple belts swung with the sudden movement as the teen faced the endless mass of trees surrounding him. If he left now, Arc would never be able to find him. The forest was full of twisting paths and turns like a labyrinth.

As he made his way away from the comforting light of the fire and slowly towards the shadowy gloom of the forest, he couldn't help but to look back. Arc was still there, asleep and vulnerable in the firelight. Add's mouth went dry as his counterpart curled up into a tighter ball, watching the other's sleeping face morph into a stressed expression.

_He looks…lonely and sad by himself. _The Psychic Tracer quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts. _No. I need to leave now, when I still have the chance. _Add turned away and resumed walking, deliberately ignoring the twinge in his heart.

_Crunch._

A leaf cracked under his boot. The teen tensed and went still, swiftly glancing back to see if the noise had woken the other. Arc was still sound asleep, although his eyebrows were now furrowed. Add shut his eyes and exhaled heavily.

"Mnnn…don't…go…"

_Shit. _

The Psychic Tracer's eyes widened as panic settled into his expression. He had been caught. _Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh sh-_

A quiet sigh sounded from behind him. Add slowly turned around, vaguely wondering if it was worth putting up a fight to escape. His hand twitched. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't punched or destroyed anything in a while…

For some reason, the thought of hurting Arc again left a bad taste in his mouth. A flashback of Arc's bruised, bloodied face and blank eyes came to mind for a second. Add shook his head to get rid of the image.

To think that the egotistical asshole had the ability to pull off such a dead expression…it was almost unimaginable now after spending several days with his other self.

"Add…" Arc murmured, shifting his position on the ground. The aforementioned person stiffened and glanced at the figure lying on the earthy soil.

_Is he still asleep? _Add carefully edged closer to the slumbering teen and observed the other's face. He breathed a sigh of relief. _Yup. Definitely asleep. _

As the teen drew closer to the sleeping form of Arc, he noticed that the other boy was sweating. A pained expression was on his counterpart's face. Arc curled up into a tighter ball and made barely audible mewling noises.

Add frowned. Was the other teen having a nightmare? He continued to watch in silence as Arc started to mutter incoercible words. His subtle movements grew more frenzied as the seconds ticked by. Tears started to flow from the sleeping silverette's closed eyes.

The Psychic Tracer quietly took a seat next to Arc and stared down at his crying face, not sure of what to do. He awkwardly wiped away a tear from his counterpart's cheek after a moment's pause. _Ah, shit. How the fucking hell am I supposed to leave now?_

He folded his gloved hands and absentmindedly fiddled with a stray belt. _I wonder what he's dreaming about. _He continued to watch wordlessly as more tears silently flowed out from underneath the sleeping teen's eyelids.

"Mother of all unholy El, Arc." Add grumbled out loud and prodded his counterpart's cheek. "Quit your crying and man up. It's just a nightmare, damn it."

Arc murmured something under his breath and leaned into the touch unconsciously. Add stiffened and quickly withdrew his hand, wiping away the moisture on his gloves from touching the other boy's tearstained face.

"Arc…wake up." Add whispered, not really wanting the sleeping teen to hear him. The Psychic Tracer clenched his fists. "This…isn't like you. Don't cry like that in front of me. You're supposed to be a conceited know-it-all who drags me around all over the place. It's pathetic to see you cry."

Arc twitched. Add tensed and held his breath, but the other person merely rolled over onto his back.

"God damn it, Arc. You're such an idiot."

He didn't think too hard about the fact that the other had stopped crying.

Add turned around to toss a stray stick into the campfire. It had shrunk after all this time and he was beginning to feel a slight chill from the nighttime air. The fire greedily consumed its flammable food. Add watched the crimson flames eat away at the dry branch he had thrown in. Slowly but surely, the edges of the small piece of wood turned from brown to black until the entire thing was lost in the flames. The campfire crackled.

His pink eyes gleamed in the firelight. The Psychic Tracer managed to throw in three more branches until a low humming noise distracted him from his thoughts. Add looked around, searching for the source of the noise until something unusual caught his eye.

A dark purplish orb was hovering over Arc's sleeping face. As he watched in momentary confusion, the orb expanded in size until it was roughly the size of an apple. It started to glow a tenebrous hue of bluish black. Add slowly set aside the tree branch in his hands next to the fire and walked closer to examine the strange orb.

It didn't move from its spot and remained still as Add cautiously jabbed it with the tip of a dynamo. His weapon went straight through the orb as if it was nothing but air. Biting his lips in puzzlement, he wrapped his hand around the orb but got the same result. His fist closed around nothing.

The Psychic Tracer grabbed his counterpart's shoulder and shook him roughly. "Oi, Arc. There's a creepy orb hanging over your face. You might wanna wake up before it does something weird."

Add glared at his partner when he refused to awaken. He carelessly prodded the other's face while keeping one eye trained on the drifting purple orb. Arc remained unconscious, as if he was in a comatose state rather than asleep. The Psychic Tracer tch'd and gave up, dropping his counterpart to the ground.

_Thuk._

A small object slipped out from under Arc's sleeve and landed onto the soil with a quiet thud. The Psychic Tracer reached over and picked it up, recognizing it as the disk they had been working on for the past few days. The disk was pulsing with a multitude of lights- a grand collection of the Essences they had collected so far.

According to Arc, they had two more left to find: Dark and Wind Essence. Moments before the two had set up camp, his dimensional counterpart had mentioned that Dark Essence manifested over dead bodies and nightmares-

_Wait a second… _The Psychic Tracer glanced at the purplish orb hanging over Arc's sleeping, sweaty face. _Is that the Dark Essence? _

There was really no other explanation for the unusual occurrence. Add cautiously brought the disk closer to the orb until the two were merely centimeters apart. He felt a pulling sensation on his hand, as if the glowing purple sphere was drawing the disk closer to it. Raising an eyebrow, he let the two objects touch.

The Dark essence, or whatever it was, seemed to melt away upon contact. Add watched in piqued interest as the purplish orb disappeared entirely into the disk. After all traces of the orb disappeared, he sat awkwardly next to the still sleeping form of Arc and glanced at the object in his hand.

Sure enough, the disk was now shining all colors of the rainbow. Add made a face at the ridiculously bright colors and tucked the object away into Arc's pocket. The Psychic Tracer tucked himself comfortably into a nook between two roots next to where his counterpart lay and closed his eyes.

* * *

When Add reopened his eyes, the sun was bright in the sky and the grass was still dewy from the early morning mist. Rubbing the crud from his eyes, the Psychic Tracer looked beside him to see the curled up form of Arc.

He suppressed the urge to punch the other person awake. _Seriously, after all this time, he's still asleep._

Completely ignoring how the sunlight accentuated Arc's graceful features, Add roughly shook his counterpart. The other male twitched and wearily blinked open his eyes. Arc glanced up into his eyes from where he lay on the ground.

"I thought…you would have left." The Arc Tracer murmured, his voice still raspy from sleep. He yawned and ran a hand through his hair, which was mussed from sleep.

"I almost d- You thought wrong." Add cleared his throat and looked away. "Anyways, where can we find the Wind essence? It's the last one that we need."

"…Thanks."

"Hm?" The dark clothed male turned around to face his counterpart and immediately regretted the decision. Arc had a gentle smile on his face, his eyes void of any mocking or sarcasm. The Psychic Tracer felt the back of his neck heat up and stick to the leather collar of his jacket.

"Thanks…for not leaving. I appreciate it." Arc said. An awkward silence followed, broken only by the sounds of the birds trilling their morning songs. Add cut the tension and snorted, fidgeting in his spot.

"You're welcome I guess." He muttered. He didn't look up again until Arc lightly toed him in the knee.

"Anyways, the Wind essence is a bit tricky. How do you feel about losing some blood?" His counterpart's voice was back to normal and the usual smug expression settled back into his face, as if he hadn't given a heartfelt thank-you to the other moments before.

Add blanched. "Blood?"

_Schlink._

_Drip. Drip._

"..." Add held up a gloved hand to his cheek and drew it away, seeing red splotches staining the black leather. The crimson liquid slowly slid down the smooth surface of the glove and dribbled down onto the green grass. Electricity sparked in his left eye as he glared murderously up at Arc, who was staring down at him flatly.

"_Conqueror-_"

"Please don't blast me while I cut myself too, I don't want to lose my good eye." Arc turned away from Add and carefully raised a tiny silver blade to his cheek. Dumfounded, Add called back his dynamos, sat back, and watched in piqued curiosity as Arc thinly sliced through his own face and swiped up the blood with a finger.

"Come here for a bit." Arc motioned the other over with a bloodstained hand. He tucked a lock of silver hair behind his ear and seized the Psychic Tracer by the chin when the other didn't comply.

_Too close. _Add sucked in a breath as his vision was suddenly focused on the entirety of Arc's face. Which was technically his own face, but wasn't at the same time.

Gods, this was confusing.

Add tried to pull away from the other person but was held fast. Arc rolled his eyes as he held the struggling teen tight. "I'm not going to hurt you again, you imbecile. Sit still so I can collect the blood."

The Psychic Tracer clenched his eyelids shut as the other's hand drew closer to his face. His wrists started to feel cramped from holding him in his awkward position on the ground with Arc caging him against the tree he was previously leaning on. A smooth finger gently traced the edges of the bloody cut on his face. The stinging feeling burned, but it was nowhere close to a different burn in his cheeks.

Arc drew away from the flustered Psychic Tracer, his fingers expertly smearing the blood onto the disk in unusual patterns. He turned away, leaving Add to collapse against the tree as his wrists finally gave out under the pressure.

Fuming under his breath, Add glared holes into the back of the white baggy sweater than Arc always wore. _Son of a bitch can pull such a fucking angelic expression when thanking me and then he cuts my face without warning._

* * *

_But life never lets us keep what we have…_

_You had to leave me in the end._

* * *

"Hey…how long has it been since we started working on the repairs?" Arc's voice cut through the silence. Add was jolted from his thoughts and responded after a moment's pause.

"About seven days, why?"

Arc swore profusely and glanced around furtively. He clutched the blood smeared disk in his hands and stared intently at the cloudless sky. "If today is the seventh day, then that means that Glave already noticed that I was missing. He could be in this dimension right now, searching for me and-"

An unfamiliar voice rang out in the air. "And…?"

Both of the Adds froze as a cold feeling crept down their necks. A figure wearing a fitted black coat and a cracked gray mask stepped out from the underbrush. The stranger swept aside the bushes with a snowy white glove and smartly clicked the back of his heels together as he stopped in front of them. His pure white hair, so different in comparison to Add's silky silver locks, was spiked up in a stylish yet messy manner. Tarnished golden locks were haphazardly arranged around the collar of his coat, and if Add craned his neck just the tiniest bit, he could see two rusty chains trailing down the man's back.

"You caused quite a ruckus in the space-time continuum." His deep baritone voice was slightly muffled due to the mask covering his face. His golden yellow eye gave away nothing as he stared down at the two teens.

Arc stepped back, eyeing the newcomer cautiously. "I'm well aware of that, Glave. If you hadn't noticed, I ran into some trouble with the disk and only just finished the repairs."

"I'm sure you know the punishment for fiddling with the physics of parallel world crossing." Glave smoothly replied, now focusing his attention on Arc. "In fact, I'm surprised that you managed to pull it off. Pray tell me, how exactly did you manage to cross dimensions without being destroyed in the process?"

"It isn't important, considering that fact that I can only interspace-travel one last time before the disk shatters completely." Arc coldly replied, holding up the mentioned item in his hand. The blood on it had dried and was now a dark brownish color. Underneath the dried bloodstains, the small object was pulsing with all the colors of the rainbow.

"I do believe it's fairly important, especially since your home dimension is in ruins right now." Glave tilted his head to the side, his tone flat. It was as if he had no soul inside of him. His one revealed eye was void of life, and the other eyehole in the mask remained empty. "All of what you did in your past became undone after you fled your own dimension and tumbled into his." He gestured towards the Psychic Tracer sitting by the tree. "Destroyed tombs are rebuilding themselves. Laboratories are crumbling to ashes in broad daylight. Deceased people that you murdered ten years ago are walking around perfectly fine and healthy."

"It'll be fixed once I go back." Arc responded. Add glanced at his counterpart and was surprised to see that Arc was on verge of panic.

He was doing a good job hiding it though, Add mused to himself. No one else would be able to recognize his inner feelings unless they were himself. It was interesting to see his own panicked face though, no matter how well-hidden it was.

"Will it? Do you truly believe that merely hopping back into your own dimension would fix everything?" Glave's voice turned dangerously soft. Add felt goose bumps forming on his back and arms at the change in tone. He turned his gaze back to the man in the black coat.

Somewhere along the line, Glave had taken out glowing blue cubes and was now toying with them in the palm of his hand, making them circle and float around his fingers. Noticing what had caught the Psychic Tracer's attention, the man made the cubes stop moving midair and let them hover.

"These are pieces of Time and Space." Glave said quietly, an edge of danger creeping into his tone. "The only way that someone can travel through dimensions is if they find a way to get one of these little cubes. The only thing is…" Glave slowly turned his head to face Arc, who straightened up and stared back at the man evenly. "…I am the only one who possesses them."

"I didn't steal the cubes, if that is what you are trying to insinuate." Arc haughtily flicked his hair away from his face. "I had a little bit of help from Luto."

Glave noticeably stiffened at the name. Arc smirked at the masked man and leered. "Can't handle hearing the name of your father now, can you?" The white clothed teen gave a mocking smile. "With all due respect, Glave, I believe your father happens to own several pieces of Time and Space as well. I merely took one as payment for a debt."

The Psychic Tracer raised an eyebrow at the newfound confidence in his parallel self but remained quiet, analyzing the other two as they spoke.

"Do not lie to me, human." Glave drawled. "Luto has been gone for centuries. He was destroyed while traveling through time and space and has never been seen since."

"Such a shame then, since I remember seeing him while collecting Alterasia samples in Altera's CA Transportation Tunnel." Arc shrugged and spun a dynamo with his finger. "You can believe me if you want. If you don't, then it's your loss. Point is, I'll be back in the dimension that I came from as soon as you get off my case."

"Very well then." Anger was evident in Glave's thinly veiled tone, but the man revealed nothing else. "I will go investigate your claims of Luto being still alive. Until then, human." He stepped backwards and melted away into the shadows, leaving the two teens alone.

Arc exhaled heavily and turned to face the Psychic Tracer who was sitting quietly in the shade of the tree. Walking over to the other person, he slumped against the rough bark and sat down. Add raised an eyebrow at his parallel self.

"Everything I said was true." Arc said wearily with a wave of his hand, answering the unspoken question. "Hopefully, Glave will be angrier at his father than myself by the time I get back to my own dimension. That should be enough to get me off his kill list."

"When are you going to leave then?" Add asked softly. Arc let out a short, rough laugh and nudged the Psychic Tracer with his elbow.

"So eager to have me leave after everything that we went through? How harsh of you, brat." The teen snorted, although his upbeat tone didn't seem to quite reach his eyes. "…It really has been a fast week, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Add replied shortly. His chest started to ache at the thought of Arc leaving so soon. _I should be happy that he's finally leaving but…as much as I hate to admit it…I'd miss him._

"I suppose I should open the gate now before we waste any more time."

Add watched in muted silence as Arc charged the disk with a current of purple electricity. A pale beam of light coming from the sky hit the spinning surface of the disk and opened up a glowing gap in space. A breeze started to blow as the jagged hole in space grew wider and wider to the point where a full grown Hameling would've been able to step through.

Arc stepped closer to the gate, his eyes closed. White light streaming from the portal illuminated his features, the same features that the Psychic Tracer shared with the other teen.

Add stood up and walked closer to the portal until he was standing right next to his parallel self. The other male opened his pinkish eyes, meeting the other's eyes with a smirk. "I guess this is it then."

"Yeah. It was…fun." The Psychic Tracer numbly stated, his focus trained on the gate in front of him. His arms hung uselessly by his sides.

"You know, I think I was right when I said that the one person we love most is our self." Arc turned around and started walking backwards into the portal. Add looked up in confusion as his other self held his gaze unflinchingly.

Arc's left foot disappeared into the portal. "I think I love you, Add."

The Psychic Tracer's mouth went dry. "Wh-What?"

Arc ignored the question as his lower body was sucked into the gate. "Then again, I can't be sure, since you're not me."

"But technically you _are _me. It's confusing, isn't it?" Arc tilted his head as more of his body was consumed by the portal. The teen in white clothes continued to talk, his words completely audible to the other despite the roaring wind. He motioned for the Psychic Tracer to come closer.

"I've always wondered what a madman's definition of love was."

Add cautiously picked his way around the rocks littering the ground and stepped closer to his parallel self.

"And I've come to the conclusion that…" Arc's eyes gleamed as he grasped the other's chin with his hand. Add's eyes grew wide.

_Is he going to pull me in with him?_

"The only person good enough for the madman…"

_No, he wouldn't dare. Not after what happened with Glave._

"…is himself."

Unfiltered white light flashed before the Psychic Tracer's eyes. He squinted and was barely able to make out the outline of the other male as Arc fell through the gate of Time and Space. The feeling of something soft and smooth pressed down upon his lips and forced him to open his eyes despite the risk of going blind.

Vibrant pink eyes, identical to his own, looked back at him from within the gate.

Then he was gone.

* * *

**Er…that was a kiss at the end, just in case some of you got confused.**

**So yeah, I decided to place this Author's Note at the end of the fic since most people tend to ignore it when it's at the beginning. A few things though.**

**One, shout out to Yuiharu, MysticFairy, and NyanDesu in Elsword NA! Because they stalked my fics and found me in-game. Mfw…**

**Okay moving onto the story-related stuff.**

**One, Psychic Tracer was the main focus in the story.**

**Two, I inputted some in-game things into the story which may cause confusion for those who do not play NA (or are not up to date with what's going on at the moment).**

**I set Luto as Glave's father merely because of the similar way that they are dressed ingame. There's also the fact that Luto looks significantly older than Glave due to a lack of mask.**

**Clearing up any possible confusion with the Hameling, I assume that it would be scaled to be the size of a tiger or elephant in real life proportions. The Hameling is a mount by the way, for those of you who don't know what it is.**

**Anyways, cheers to myself for being the first person (I think) to write an Add selfcest story. I'm pretty new to writing yaoi so unfortunately the yaoi fans had to suffer with my minor teases and pokes at fluff. It was all experimental.**

**Reviewing is appreciated, thank you in advance!**

**Desuchi, signing off.**


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